Heart Balm Laws

Heart Balm Laws

People across the world have expressed their everlasting affection for those they love and desire to wed in a countless of ways.  Expressions of love have various forms.  For instance, great poets and dramatist, express their love to conquer the heart of their true love with different forms.  Whereas, in modern times, people have come to rely upon gifts and tokens as a means of expressing their love and commitment to those they intend to marry. In fact, during the twentieth century the engagement ring became a “common symbol of impending marriage.”  Engagement ring is a universal symbol of deep seated sexual and social ramifications.  It also makes promises among persons to enter into a martial relationship.  In certain situations, however, one party might take advantage of the other, as where a woman becomes engaged to a man merely for the purpose of gaining access to substantial wealth. In such cases, breach of promise actions can be utilized to compensate the individual who has been injured from such a relationship.  Thus statutes that abrogate or restrict lawsuits brought by individuals who seek pecuniary damages to salve their broken hearts are called heart balm statutes.  “Heartbalm” statutes are also known as “Heart Balm,” “heart-balm” and “Anti-Heart-Balm” statutes. The name is a sardonic reference to the broken heart that supposedly justified a breach of promise suit.